Thursday 9 November 2017

Agony of the Feet

“And he’s tired. Yes, and his dogs are tired, too.” Cut to soldier Barney Bear’s shoes panting.



The see-them-a-mile-away puns don't stop there in The Rookie Bear. The narrator continues: "Pretty soon, they feel like, yes, hot dogs.” Guess what the shoes turn into?



"And if that rookie’s got any corns, they’re going to pop.” You know what’s coming.



Rudy Ising’s storyman mercifully remains unidentified in the credits. So does everyone else, despite the animation being top-notch. Fortunately, studios got most of these cringingly bad spot-gag shorts out of their systems in a few years.

7 comments:

  1. Actually, I like these (and thanks for identifying yet another long obscure narrator, Gayne Whitman.) I actually think the corns should have (logically!) been corn dogs, THEN popcorn (there's a classic "O.Henry""cop out" double curveball, which I won't spoil here for the ending...)SC

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    1. PS Corn Dogs WOULD describe the writers of quite a few gags like that.:)

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    2. In Van Beuren's Aesop cartoon "Noah Knew His Ark." Noah complains of his corns aching...followed by a close-up of little stalks of corn popping out of his toes.

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  2. Gayne Whitman played Chandu the Magician on radio in the early 1930s. I like to imagine Barney Bear going off to fight "the malignant Roxor."

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  3. Keith Scott has sent a note saying he believes the narrator is Frank Bingman. The narrator intones far more than I'm used to hearing out of Bingman but Whitman's tones are a little more rounded to my ear. The Whitman ID came from the Graham Webb book, I believe.

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  4. Rudy Ising’s storyman mercifully remains unidentified in the credits. So does everyone else

    It is kinda interesting how neither Harman or Ising felt they wanted to credit anyone at all in their productions at MGM during that time. It seemed like that trend lasted for quite a while until Bill & Joe got to do their own thing and when Tex came in.

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    1. Rudy's "Chips off the Old Block" next year, 1942, would give credits, including Scott Bradley for music..SC

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